Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Mitch Landrieu

Mitch
Landrieu

By

Phil
LaMancusa

What can you say about Mitchell Landrieu? Politician and
lawyer; son of a mayor, brother of a senator, one time deputy Governor and
State representative; present mayor of New Orleans. First ran for mayor in
1994, narrowly lost in 2006 and took two thirds of the vote to win it in 2010.

The city was left with a hundred million dollar shortfall
thanks to the previous administration (C. Ray Nagin). He placed a hiring freeze
on the police department and crime rates rose as police ranks dwindled. He did things to beautify the city that our
visitors will notice and left other parts to wither. He over saw the removal of
city monuments (statues) that represented personages that were pro slavery and
a minority of radicals on both sides of the argument disrupted the city with
protests that took an additional portion of our police department from other
duties. His infrastructure projects have cost money and have inconvenienced
citizens. He is very adept at using federal monies for city projects and one of
his gaffs is known as the ‘streetcar to nowhere’ on Rampart Street.

Landrieu is a career politician and is a staunch advocate
for juvenile justice system reforms; he also is a fiscal conservative actively
working on and repealing an Orleans parish ‘amusement tax’ (2% of gross sales)
and as a career politician is widely regarded as someone who has his eye on
Washington D.C.

He has reached term limits as a mayor and leaves the city
with mixed viewpoints of his legacy. As mayor, he has done nothing wrong.